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Thursday, January 14, 2016

Book Review: Compulsion by Martina Boone

When her mother dies, Barrie promises to put some mileage on her stiletto heels. But she finds a new kind of prison at her aunt’s South Carolina plantation instead—a prison guarded by an ancient spirit who long ago cursed one of the three founding families of Watson Island and gave the others magical gifts that became compulsions.

Stuck with the ghosts of a generations-old feud and hunted by forces she cannot see, Barrie must find a way to break free of the family legacy. With the help of sun-kissed Eight Beaufort, who knows what Barrie wants before she knows herself, the last Watson heir starts to unravel her family's twisted secrets. What she finds is dangerous: a love she never expected, a river that turns to fire at midnight, a gorgeous cousin who isn't what she seems, and very real enemies who want both Eight and Barrie dead. (Summary from Goodreads.com)
I listened to Compulsion during my Christmas vacation and was pleasantly surprised. Not only are there several fun accents (If you haven't tried audio books with accents, you need to do it now!), but the story was gripping. Barrie Watson is from San Francisco, but she didn't get out much. When Barrie's mother was pregnant with her, she was in a bad fire and badly scarred - so much that she rarely let anyone see her face and covered herself with a veil. When her mother dies, she is sent to live with her mother's twin sister on a South Carolina island called Watson Island that she didn't even know existed.

Barrie has a strange power that she knows to be hereditary, she finds things that are lost. What she doesn't know is that her's isn't the only family on the island with a powerful gift. When she meets Eight, she convinces him to help her delve into her family history, a history that she knows nothing about, and discovers that life on Watson Island is much more complicated than she expected it to be.

I can't wait to read the next book in the series, Persuasion, and see what kind of trouble Barrie is going to get into next!